'Kill' All Traces of Your Ex From Facebook With This Breakup App

Breaking up in the digital age really sucks. Kissy pictures, gushing posts, sappy statuses. What do you do with all those painful reminders of your now defunct relationship, etched into your digital life? This is the question posed by KillSwitch, a brand-new Android and iOS app that appropriately/ironically chose February 14 as their launch date.

In a nutshell, KillSwitch removes all traces of your ex from your Facebook profile. No detagging is needed, because KillSwitch discretely disappears the photos, videos, wall posts, and status updates documenting your once-happy relationship. Just in time for Valentine's Day, you can use KillSwitch to heal your broken heart -- and by shelling out the $0.99 download fee, you can help others heal their own hearts in the process.

Advertisement

KillSwitch works by combing through your Facebook profile for anything that's been tagged with your ex's name and wipes away the now-painful evidence. Photos are stored in a top-secret hidden album that only you have access to, so you don't do something you regret (like delete everything in a fit of rage, only to mourn lost images when you're not quite so upset). The app also lets you unlike status updates, and it all happens seamlessly so your feed doesn't reveal a bunch of late-night wine-fueled untagging and deleting.

KillSwitch's co-founders say the app is for the recently broken-up, regardless of the exact nature of the relationship, and that it's intended to help you get past the bad feelings without encouraging permanent decisions you might regret later:

KillSwitch is for anyone fresh out of a break-up looking to move on. What if they have a lot of pictures of their ex and they don't want to be reminded of that? KillSwitch is also for anybody that has had a falling out, be it a friendship or coworker, any relationship that you really don't want to have evidence or traces of on Facebook. (...) We have a friend who deactivates her Facebook profile after every break-up. We don't see KillSwitch as a vindictive tool but part of a greater healing process.

Interestingly, a portion of the proceeds will go to the American Heart Association so -- as KillSwitch puts it -- "Broken hearts can help mend broken hearts."

I guess it's a little sad to think about the need for this app, but it does seem like a good idea. More than ever, our relationships are being preserved via social media, and it's nice to have an easy way to remove the stuff we don't want to be faced with every time we log in. Breaking up is messy enough without having to go through and manually clean the digital house.